adapter

The OnePlus 7 Pro is (by most accounts) an excellent phone, but there are still shortcomings. Like most flagship smartphones these days, it doesn't have a headphone jack, but OnePlus has also decided not to include a Type-C adapter in the box. To make matters worse, the company has taken a page out of Apple's playbook and nearly doubled the price of the official adapter.

The loss of the headphone jack on the Pixel lineup meant there was no way to use wired headphones and charge your phone at the same time. While there are plenty of goofy-looking adapters for the iPhone that give you a headphone jack with power pass-through, no such adapter has been available for Type-C Android phones - at least not any that worked well.

Google got in the headphone dongle business when the Pixel 2 infamously axed the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack after Google made a big to-do about Apple's recent iPhone's doing the same thing in its reveal of the original Pixel the preceding year. The company has now quietly refreshed its headphone adapter, with its listing on the Google Store claiming the improved dongle provides 53 percent lower latency and 38 percent longer playback time than its predecessor.

Unfortunately, the trend of removing headphone jacks from smartphones isn't ending anytime soon. Sony revealed its new flagship devices at Mobile World Congress last month, and among other major changes, there is no headphone jack to be found. Sony will include an adapter with those phones, but if you need to charge and listen at the same time, the company is more than happy to sell you a more complicated (yet still terrible) dongle.

USB Type-C is the way of the future, and the new port can already be found in a vast array of laptops, phones, tablets, and other devices. But if you're like me, you probably have a ton of microUSB cables collected over the years, but hardly any Type-C cables. If that sounds familiar, you're in luck, because we've partnered with BrexLink to giveaway 15 packs of the company's Type-C USB 3.0 cables and Type-C to microUSB adapters.

As you might have already heard, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL don't have headphone jacks. It's disappointing, yes, but Google has a solution if you need to charge and listen to your tunes at the same time. The only problem: it's a $44.95 solution, and you'll have this giant dongle hanging off of your shiny new phone.

Moving all your data to a new device can be annoying at best, and one of the Pixel's newest features aims to help that. Google's Pixel devices ship with an OTG adapter, referred to as the 'Quick Switch Adapter', that allows you to easily transfer all your data to a Pixel phone. The process works with any iOS device running iOS 8 and up, as well as most Android devices running 5.0 Lollipop or higher.

So how does it work? Simply connect the adapter to your Pixel, and plug your old phone's charging/data cable into it. Once you are signed in with your Google account, you can choose what data to copy.

Andru is probably the most adorable power adapter in the universe. The bugdroid-inspired plug has movable arms, flexible antennae, and light-up eyes (blue means charging, white is for standby), making it a perfect desk charger and about 100 times more dynamic than the average power brick.

The 2.5" adapter has 5V/1A DC output, and normally costs $25 each for an Andru, Andru Dark, Andru Chill, or Andra (pink) unit. In preparation for holiday shopping (or just for fun, who knows?) PowerbyGen is offering all four variants together for just $65, about $35 off the normal price of a full set.

PowerbyGen doesn't specify exactly how long we can expect this deal to last, but if you're looking for a great small gift for a tech lover in your life, you can't go wrong with Andru.

You've probably heard the joke by now. A 20-something job applicant or apartment hunter or a long-suffering customer support victim is talking to someone who asks him, "and what's you're landline number?" To which the young man replies, "what the hell is a landline?" But niche hardware company Obihai aims to bring back the home phone with its line of VOIP phones and adapters that use your broadband connection to make and receive calls without a landline. And now, it works with Google Voice.

At least some of Obihai's products have worked with Google's pseudo-VOIP solution for some time, but now the OBi100, OBi200, and OBi300 adapters and the full Office OBi1032 telephone will officially support calls via your Google Voice number.

Do you know Andru? He's possibly the most adorable little phone charger you'll ever see. With a USB port on top of his head, he'll charge right into your heart. Now folks from Europe and the UK can get an Andru of their very own with the new SHUTL adapters. Maybe to make up for the delay, there are some deals to be had.